Outbreak adds to demand surge for food delivery plays

Singapore

FOOD delivery and e-commerce players are gearing up for a surge in sales volumes in the upcoming weeks, as the novel coronavirus outbreak goes into its third week here.

Four out of seven tech companies The Business Times spoke to have confirmed an uptick in sales volume of up to 30 per cent over the past week, but reiterated that this could also be partly driven by demand surges during festive periods such as the Lunar New Year.

Although this is the first time these tech companies have faced an infectious disease on the scale of the novel coronavirus, they say they are prepared to scale up operations and work through multiple peak periods, if needed.

"Our warehouse is equipped with both automated conveyor belts and manual scanning systems to sort both bulky and regular-sized parcels, and our tech enables the whole parcel sorting process to be as easy and intuitive as possible to keep things smooth," said Ray Chou, country head for Ninja Van Singapore, adding that this will allow them to scale up operations quickly when required.

Food delivery and e-commerce platforms can now provide more alternatives and variety, where users can opt for home delivery easily without venturing outdoors to brick and mortar stores - which did not exist during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2003.

Food delivery platform Deliveroo has already seen a 30 per cent increase in orders over the past week as compared to the week before, according to a Deliveroo spokesman.

However, he qualified that other ongoing marketing campaigns might have also contributed to the increase in orders.

"We use data analytics to match supply and demand, ensuring that we have the right number of riders on the road in the right place at any one time," added the Deliveroo spokesman.

foodpanda, too, uses similar technology. Managing director Luc Andreani says its proprietary dispatch algorithm Hurrier can learn from sudden surges in demand.

This helps plan for the number of riders it requires to "meet demand at any point during the day".

GrabFood Singapore also reported an "increase in the number of orders during this period", which could be partially due to the various promotions launched as part of its Lunar New Year campaign, said a Grab spokesman.

"To ensure all our customers' orders can be fulfilled, our system will look for a delivery-partner for a longer period of time which will increase the probability of matching a delivery partner to each order," the spokesman added.

Besides food delivery, some e-commerce players have also seen increased interest in healthcare products such as surgical face masks and hand sanitisers on their platforms. E-commerce platform Qoo10 lists surgical masks as its top searched item in Singapore on its platform, up 2,661 places from the month before.

Its top 10 search items this month also include hand sanitisers, thermometers and Dettol.

Sam Too, general manager at Qoo10 says: "We have been speaking to all our relevant local and international merchants, to direct more supply of face masks and other health related products to Singapore. This is to make sure our supply chain is prepared for this increased demand.

"We are looking at our data closely so that we know when and what to anticipate," he said, adding that they are already building up a more robust supply.

E-commerce platform Lazada has created a dedicated landing page for the novel coronavirus, which lists items that help to "stop the spread", including thermometers, purifiers and even food-delivery or ride-hailing vouchers. Masks on the platform are sold out.

Lazada did not respond by press time to queries as to whether its platform experienced an increase in traffic, or if it's anticipating a potential surge in demand.

However, the platform had engaged infectious diseases expert Dr Leong Hoe Nam on Jan 31 to answer questions from the public through its live platform LazLiveSG, which saw over 21,000 views over a 30 minute duration.

E-commerce platform Shopee declined to comment for this report, but BT notes that alcohol swabs, thermometers and surgical face masks were among its top sales items in the Health and Wellness section.

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